SCRANTON, Pa. — If you went shopping on Monday, you may have noticed more people with masks on. Governor Wolf's new mandatory mask order started affecting many shoppers for the first time.
Under the new order, every commercial building that serves the public now requires its employees and customers to wear face masks, and if they don't, they will not be allowed inside.
Employees at Gerrity's and Schiff's in Scranton say, for the most part, everybody is complying with the new guidelines.
"Everything's going very well, the customers are coming in, they're all prepared, as they approach the door, they have they're mask on, and everybody has been following the requirements," said Schiff's president Mark Reese.
But some people just didn't want to wear masks.
"We did have two people that did not want to, you know unfortunately they had left, but overall we've had a pretty good response," said Gerrity's co-owner Joe Fasula.
Many customers we spoke with say that the new mask order makes them feel a lot safer when shopping in public places.
"Definitely feel safe, you feel a little more confident knowing in the fact that the disease is hopefully getting under control," Jim Nicolais said.
Others say this should have been done a long time ago.
"I think it should have been done from the very beginning. That everybody should have been wearing masks. It's just the smart thing to do," Brigid Nykaza said.
Both the employees at Gerrity's and Schiff's say while many people don't want to wear the masks while shopping, in order to combat the virus, we all need to follow the proper protocol and be on the same page.
"We all have to follow the same guidelines here, and you know what? it's the safest way," said Gerrity's worker Matthew Walsh. "Protect yourself; you know anything as simple as this to cover your nose and your mouth. But if we all do and stay on the same page like I said, we'll get through it."
"This is something we've worked at for a week and a half now, so to see it go into effect and be used by everyone. It's a positive," said Schiff's employee Kris Krahling.
Although not everyone is going to follow the new policy, workers at both grocery stores say is you do follow the rules, you are keeping yourself and everyone you come in contact with safe.